NICOLAS GHESQUIERE

Your priority has to be the creativity - and build a brand. That's what everybody did - Balenciaga, Dior, Saint Laurent. That's the smart thing to do.

What I find most interesting in fashion is that it has to reflect our time. You have to witness your own moment.

In this work, you have to convince everyone all the time, at different levels, to support your dream. I learned you have to be confident in order to do that.

People used to define me as a futurist designer, but, you know, the future is now for me.

Never forget that what becomes timeless was once truly new.

I grew up in a family that played golf, and my brother was much better than me, so I kind of put that aside. I had to be good at something other than golf.

I'm always very stressed about making a new proposition every season. But in a way, it's a kind of addiction.

Of course I live in my time, and I'm really curious. But, at the same time, I don't think it has a direct impact on my work.

With my designs and my ideas, I want to please myself first.

I promised myself: Before your 18th birthday, you're going to be at Jean Paul Gaultier. And it worked. I was hired.

I think the golden age of couture had some of the most incredible customers: women like Nan Kempner and all the icons.

In terms of design, it's true the world has an influence. But, as a designer, you have to protect yourself. You have to look at the world and then forget it.

There are people I've worked with who have never understood how fashion works. They keep saying they love fashion, yet they've never actually grasped that this isn't yoghurt or a piece of furniture - products in the purest sense of the term.

Actually, I love golf clothes! I think this is the most interesting part of golf!

More than anything, I'm designing for a woman of today. I want to be a witness of my time.

You never do things thinking you will make a big statement. It just happens sometimes and you are lucky.

It's quite strange in fashion, and it's probably the same with movies and acting - the big choice is between being radical, making a choice that will be more specific that will reach less people but will be very strong and very directional, and making a choice that will be more popular and catch the interest of a large group of people. Sometimes people are trying to push you in one direction or another.

Today, kids are much more aware of what fashion means, but when I was growing up, it was popular, but not as popular as today. Like any kid, I was fascinated by drawing. But when some of the kids let go, I kept drawing and drawing.

I think when a time comes, a change comes, and you have to recognize the change but also believe in yourself.

Why is it that when I did a weird dress in the past, people were like, 'Oh, it's niche,' and why when I do a pair of jeans that are super cool, it's much more accessible, but I enjoy doing it? I enjoy the mix of those two things. I realized that quite late, actually. I'm going to really try to express those two things at the same time, because this is me.

I have a quality where I sort of scare people. But I am who I am.

To look deeply into the lawn and see six shades of green - there is hardly that respite for you. And that's our job that we're doing. And it's even more demanding for someone like yourself, who is so extremely creative. But you have to move forward. You cannot just wallow or sit back and take in the accolades. They're wonderful, the accolades, and you appreciate them. But then you go on to the next moment. You have to always be going out to the end of the diving board and diving off.

I'd rather work with someone who likes what I do than create something for the red carpet that won't make me happy.

Fashion is a playground up until a certain age. But then you have to find your own signature and your own style.

Why isn't Tilda Swinton on the covers of tons of magazines? Well, she's not that. It isn't her thing. But I don't know. I think that suddenly a time came when models, after the Linda Evangelista crowd, and Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington, when the models for me became a bit bland. But I think more than that, the culture changed. The movies, television, music, and all of those things - those people were more visual and therefore more interesting.